ness, candour, and zealous piety: O that the remembrance of him may have a greater influence upon me, than the personal converse had! 3. Death comes nearer and nearer to me: Lord, make me to know mine end, and teach me to number my days. In January last, death came into our classes, and removed good Mr. Kinaston of Knutsford; in February death came into the Friery, [the place where Mr. Henry's house stood] and took away Mrs. Cook: In March death came into my house, and carried away my cousin Aldersey; in April it came into our family, in the death of my father, Warburton; at the end of May I said with thankfulness, "Here is a month past in which I have not buried one friend;" but June has brought it nearest of all, and speaks very loud to me to get ready to go after the Lord prepare me for a dying hour, that will come certainly, and may come suddenly, that when it comes I may have nothing to do but to die. 4. The great honour and respect paid to his memory, and the good name he has left behind him, should encourage me to faithfulness and usefulness; the Scripture is fulfilled, Those that honour God he will honour, and before honour is humility. 5. This should bring me nearer to GoD, and make me live more upon him, who is the fountain of living waters; my dear father was a counsellor to me, but Christ is the wonderful counsellor; he was an intercessor for me, but Christ is an intercessor that lives for ever, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost; nor are the prayers that he has put up for me and mine lost, but I trust we shall be reaping the fruit of them now he is gone; I have` had much comfort in hearing GoD speak to me by this scripture, Jer. iii. 4. Wilt thou not from this time ery unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? My dear father wrote to me lately upon the death of my father Warburton, Your fathers, where are they? one gone, and the other going, but you have a good Father in heaven that lives for ever.' Abba, Father, the Lord teach me to cry so, and to come into the holiest as to my Father's house, and let these things be written upon my heart. Amen, Amen."

Such were the workings of Mr. Henry's heart under this great affliction, where one may see the most tender and sincere affections to an earthly parent, regulated and governed by stronger affections of another nature. He had, indeed, to all his relations a most affectionate heart, proving the truth of that maxim, that where the grace of GoD operates really, the possessor becomes the better for it in

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all the circumstances of father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, master, servant, or friend. And he shewed this truth eminently and by a variety of occasions. As to his ministerial labours, surely if ever man fulfilled his ministry since the apostolical age, he was the man; nobody looks upon his prodigious industry as a common measure, to which all others are obliged to come up; those that have not the strength of body, freedom and readiness of thought, natural fervour and easiness of expression, can no more come up to his standard, as to the multitude, variety, and excellency of ministerial services, than a child can bear a strong man's burthen. His labours were so many and great, that in order to our taking a particular view of them, it will be necessary to reduce them to their proper heads, of which you may take the following scheme: They were either such as he was conversant in,

I. At home among his own people; and these were either, 1. Constant; as on the Lord's Day, on lecturedays, catechizing on Saturday, and monthly sacraments, conferences, and congregational fasts. Or, 2. Occasional; and these either, 1. Public, as fasts and thanksgivings; or, 2. Private, on family occasions, visiting the sick, admonitions, visiting and preaching to the prisoners at the castle, and reformation sermons.

II. Abroad in neighbouring places and congregations; as lectures in several places, meetings of ministers, ordinations of ministers, funeral sermons for ministers and others, and yearly journies to visit the churches. We must begin with the ministerial labours he performed at home among his own people; for though his soul was too large to be confined to them, yet he was very sensible they had the best title to his services, and he never would injure them to supply other churches. His constant work on the Lord's Day at Chester, was to pray six times in public, to sing six times, to expound twice and preach twice; and this he did for many years together. His method was, after having worshipped GOD in his family, in the manner that has been already mentioned, he went to the congregation exactly at nine of the clock, began the public worship with singing the 100th Psalm, then prayed a short but fervent and suitable prayer, then he read some part of the Old Testament, and expounded it, going through it in course from the beginning to the end, then he sung another Psalm, then he prayed for about half an hour, then he preached about an hour, then prayed and sung usually the 117th Psalm, and then

gave the blessing; he did the same exactly in the afternoon, only then expounded out of the New Testament, and sung at the end the 134th Psalm, or some verses of the 136th; this was his constant Lord's Day's work. In singing, he always made use of David's Psalms, or other Scripture hymns; he collected a set of them, such as he thought most useful and edifying, and digested them under proper titles, according to the occasions to which they were adapted. He preferred Scripture psalms and hymns far before those that are wholly of human composure, which are generally liable to this exception, that the fancy is too high, and the matter too low, and sometimes such as a wise and good man may not be able with entire satisfaction to offer up as a sacrifice to God. In this work of praise he took great delight; one might easily discern how his soul was upon the wing, it was a part of worship for which his soul was particularly formed, being himself of an af fectionate, cheerful, thankful temper. In prayer, his gifts and graces eminently appeared, he had a wonderful faculty of engaging the attention, and raising the affections of his assembly; in his second prayer, he was always copious, though never tedious; he was very full in confession of sin, and very tender and humble, aggravating the evil and guilt of it in a very clear and convincing manner; his prayer was always suited to the state of the congregation, to the season, to the state of the nation, and of the church of GOD; in supplication for mercy he was very earnest and particular, pleading the name, and sufferings, and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and peace; he was large and full in praying for grace, and used to mention the particular graces of the Holy Spirit, as faith, love, hope, patience, zeal, delight in GOD, earnestly begging that these graces might be truly wrought in all, and might be preserved, exercised, increased, and evidenced to the glory of the GoD of all grace. In his requests for the nation, he was constant and earnest; many a time has he wrestled with GOD in the pulpit for the land of his nativity, and herein he expressed himself with humility, meekness and wisdom, carefully avoiding whatever might appear disrespectful to our governors; and though he knew not how to give flattering titles, lest his GoD should cut him off, yet his prayers for those in authority discovered the reverence he had for the government, as the ordinance of GOD, and for those that GOD had invested with it; all seditious, saucy reflections upon the ruler of the people, how artfully soever couched, he utterly disliked in com

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mon conversation, and therefore could never be guilty of profaning the worship of GoD with them.

The exposition of the Scriptures was a very pleasant part of his work, both in his own house and in the house of GOD; what his expositions were from the pulpit may be gathered by what they appear to be from the press: his father's example led him to take delight in this part of his work, and made it easy to him; and while some commentators take a great deal of pains to make plain things dark, his endeavour always was to make dark things plain, and not only plain, but moving and practical. He kept very close and constant to his business of expounding, and never omitted it, even on a sacrament day; in the time he was at Chester, he went through the whole Bible more than once, and by this means his people have been observed to excel in their acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures. How great a talent he had in preaching, the world is not ignorant, so many of his sermons being published, and spread far and wide; he was very happy in the choice of his subjects: there could no occasion happen, either public or private, but as he was ever ready to preach upon it, so he had always an apposite text to preach upon, being a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of GOD; he had a treasure out of which he could easily bring things new and old. His preaching was truly evangelical, spiritual, and practical; he shunned not to declare the whole counsel of GOD; he loved to preach of Christ, and in his diary often declares, "He was best pleased when he was upon that sweet subject." Having preached concerning Christ as our passover, and his blood sprinkled upon the saints as their safety, November 20, 1690, he has this remark: "It is most pleasant to me to be preaching Christ," and afterwards,

I am most in my element when I am preaching Christ and him crucified ;" and he loved that others should preach Christ; in the year 1709, May 1, he has recorded it, "This day Mr. Basnet preached Gal. iv. 5. God sent forth his Son: he preached much of Christ, whom I love to hear of." And February 12, 1710, having expounded five of Solomon's Songs, he adds, "The more I think and speak of Christ, the more reason I see to love him." But he thought it also necessary to preach up holiness, and did constantly affirm it as a faithful saying, That they that believe on God should be careful to maintain good works; this saying he knew was as faithful in its place, as that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; both of them are faithful sayings, not only true in themselves, but such as

ministers

ministers are bound in faithfulness to insist upon in their preaching, such preaching is faithful preaching: a faithful saying.

Another part of his constant work among his people was that of catechizing; in this also he took great pleasure, being full of affection and compassion for the souls of young people: Christ's charge to Peter, to feed the lambs as well as the sheep, he had much at heart, and it was often in his mouth: He knew by experience the benefit of this Christian institution, his good father both abounded and excelled in it, as well in his family as in the congregation. Saturday, in the afternoon, was the time set apart for this work, beginning and ending with prayer, in which his expressions were very plain and very tender, suited to the nature of the ordinance and to the capacity of young persons; in this exercise he usually spent about an hour; it was attended by others besides the catechumens, and esteemed by them a good means of preparation for the Lord's Day. In this work of catechizing he was remarkably owned and blessed of GOD; he longed for the conversion of young people, and had the desire of his soul, in seeing the good work begun in many of his catechumens; of these he always spoke with a particular respect; and when any, of whom he had entertained good hopes, grew loose and vain, (and notwithstanding all his care and pains, there were some such) he sadly lamented their sin, and his disappointment in them, and ceased not to pray earnestly to GOD for them, "That he would recover them out of the snare of the devil, before their hearts were hardened with the deceitfulness of sin." Visiting the sick he took to be an essential part of his ministry, and he was very diligent in it, never refusing to go either to rich or poor, when sent for, unless hindered by invincible necessity; in this he did not confine his visits to those of his own congregation, or of his own opinion; he was often sent for to visit those in communion with the established church, and to strangers, travellers, and passengers to or from Ireland, and he readily complied, and did indeed abound in this part of his work, which to many tempers has something in it very difficult and disagreeable. We have a very uncommon instance of his diligence, and zeal, and love to souls, in the frequent compassionate visits that he made to the poor prisoners, and even to the malefactors in the castle at Chester, to pray with them and preach to them, both before and after their trial and condemnation. Another sort of ministerial service in which Mr. Henry was engaged at Chester, was preaching reformation serVOL. IV.

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